Author's Note

Read this in Ron Perlman's voice.

Intro

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria…

...the era of friendship and harmony was over, overtaken by the greed and ignorance that plunged the world in balefire. Lands from Ponyville to Manehatten, and everywhere between and beyond were overtaken by the radiation that poured out from the megaspells and Canterlot fell prey to a pink cloud that distorts and poisons much worse than the radiation from the megaspells. In the wasteland, many a villain came into play, hoping to profit off the broken land, ruling by an iron hoof or by the bullet, or even by the very force of energized particles. At the same time, many a hero came into being, hoping to save the wasteland and return friendship and harmony. As one radio host put it though, they usually either died or just gave up, some even turned into the very things that they sought to destroy...

...One hero stood up against this trend, one little mare from Stable 2 changed everything… But this story is not about that mare, and this different hero didn’t come from a Stable. This hero wasn’t even really a pony either to be completely honest. The setting was different as well, as the lands that this hero hailed from had been at the center of the hated megaspells. The Crystal Empire, saved from Sombra’s shadowy hooves by the Elements of Harmony and one little dragon, was where the megaspell was first invented. The mare of the Ministry of Peace made many trips to the home of the Crystal Heart to learn about how it worked with the help of the mare of the Ministry of Arcane Sciences. With technology advancing at a pace faster than that of any other time in history, the Princess of Love and her husband worked at keeping their home secure. With the War with the Zebras raging down south, the Crystal Ponies were only satisfied with keeping neutrality during the war, to the ire of Princess Luna and Equestria. Despite many pleas from friends and family down south, no Crystal Pony entered the War; only the work on the megaspells ever attached the Empire to the War. “Ponies… Ponies never change” is what they say, and perhaps they are true, perhaps the Era of Harmony was just an Age of Hypocrisy between the Age of the Three Pony Tribes and this current chapter of pony history in the Equestrian Wasteland...

Because war never changes and crystal stands strong...